Main content and articles

We have a good reputation of being "hep and with it" here at Mojo, and therefore we’re all about the vinyl. Just like the kids. Therefore I’m sure you, the discerning reader, as us, will be over the Thimbleweed Park double-LP, which you can purchase right now. I mean, right now!

... but I suspect people only say so because they’re both about pirates. Or possibly because its open world like with chances to customize stuff. Or something. Despite looking like a pure action game I deemed it news-worthy, although I’d never even heard about the game before, so give me a break.

For those who know Sea of Thieves, and have given it a go on the PC and/or the Xbox, sound off in the comments which I suspect will be suitably quiet.

With thirty years under his belt, Tim gets what Tim deserves -- a lifetime achievement award. You already know what those achievements are, of course, though we are pretty sure his numerous Mojo Game of the Year awards are his most cherished memories.

Sometimes one reads one's RSS feeds, and one is surprised at seeing familiar names. This was the case when a certain "Junaid" popped up over at Cartoon Brew. Correctly deducing there is only one "Junaid" in the world, I decided this is the man you knew not just from Mojo, but also World of Monkey Island. Now he has hit the big time with the animated short, "Short But Sweet".

The movie, described as “a young hero has to embark on an epic quest to save a princess from an evil villain, all within an absurd short amount of time” is pretty delightful, so go watch it over at Cartoon Brew.

Mojo probably should demand royalties for singlehandedly having made our readers arteésts.

This email thing -- write us at webmonkey@mixnmojo.com with news, etc. -- seems to be working out. No longer do we have to spend time finding news; instead people like Mojo-perenial Jones Jr. can email us instead of posting comments in unrelated news-items about what’s going on.

Like "GLide N64" trying to get support to emulate the forgotten classic-is Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine. I mean, god, I haven’t tried to get the game working since about 2002, but here’s your chance -- boot up an N64 emulator and play the game, if you’re willing to pony up the bucks. I think. Something like that. Jones Jr. can correct me, I didn’t read his email that closely.

Back it at Indie Go Go -- Indie/Indy, get it?! -- and Battle for Naboo will be thrown in, too, but we won’t hold supporting that against you or them.

I mean, to be displayed! #clickbait ;D But a good piece of art none-the-less!

An art show called “Fake Theme Parks” is set to open Friday, January 12th at Gallery 1988 in LA. The concept is to show off artworks based on fake amusement parks inspired by Disney Land and Disneyworld, and “Big Whoop” by Scott Balmer is one of the 50-odd works on display.

Looking for a long interview with Bay Area Sound, the production company behind the sound of games like Firewatch and every Telltale game ever? Alternative Magazine Online has you covered with their conversation with the outfit. Firefox's Reader View has it clocked in at between "38-49 minutes", so yeah. Make sure you got some time.

As is en vogue these days, Ronzo has for all intents and purposes left Twitter. I might not 100% agree with his take on the social network (mind you his points about the toxicity of the place are spot on), but I’d much rather see him (and pretty much anyone else) put down their thoughts in more than 180 characters, which is why it’s great to see Grumpy Gamer (the website) make a comeback.

Speaking of communication, our email is back up after about a decade or two of downtime. Feel free to email webmonkey@mixnmojo.com to promptly be ignored by us.

I missed this a few months back, but World of Monkey Island just turned 20. By my estimation, that makes it the third oldest active-ish site in the greater Mojo community. (After The SCUMM Bar and us.)

Chances are you have a PS Plus subscription if you own a PS4, and thus you will be able to download the much-maligned first season of Batman for free this January. Hey, it might be worth a look at that price? Feel free to read our review if you need more info.

Conversely, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided (which I wholeheartedly recommend) and Uncanny Valley (which looks interesting) round out the offering. So yeah, might not be much time to play Batman.

I mean, I'm sure you saw the backer email, but in case you didn't, you heard it here first: Psychonauts 2 is now aiming for a 2019 release, a little later than had been originally speculated. You know, as Psychonauts games are wont to do.

DoubleFine said: "Now we are in full swing, we know a lot more about the size and scope of the game we are going to make, how long it will take us to make it, and the amount of time we need to make it be great. From those projections, we know that Psychonauts 2 will not be shipping in 2018, like we originally estimated when we published the Fig campaign two years ago."

It is what it is, and if this will give us that always sought-after extra polish then it's probably not a bad thing.

It happened without warning, and goodness knows it happened decades later than it should have, but the the original Maniac Mansion is now available on Steam. Sure, you already have it as a free bonus feature within Day of the Tentacle, but don't you want the pleasure of buying it individually, especially since the last time you could do so was like forty years ago?

Everybody's favorite SCUMM-game-and-more virtual machine has been updated to a major 2.0 milestone. 23 new games has been added to the roster, including a bunch of Sierra ones. Other improvements are of course also to be found -- read the release notes for more.

Having headlined Brütal Legend and getting summoned back for Broken Age, Jack Black has become something of a regular for Double Fine. The trend will continue with Psychonauts 2, which Black announced at something called The Game Awards.

No information has been divulged on the character Black will be voicing, but experts speculate that it won't be Mr. Pokeylope.

Jake embarrassingly forgot to tell us, but Campo Santo is, indeed, developing a new game. There's even a trailer.

Looks Firewatch-y. What's In the Valley of Gods all about, outside of what the trailer reveals? Who knows, but feel free to read the FAQ, full of questions nobody frequently would ask. 2019 seems to be the release year, so no need holding your breath.

Rock Paper Shotgun published an interesting article yesterday about the artistic merit of remastered video games. Ron, Tim, and Brian Moriarty are all on hand to weigh in on the technical and even ethical pitfalls of "upgrading" a classic:

“We had limitations back then” recalls Gilbert in an email interview, “and the artist worked magic to make the game work within those limitations. They often turned working within those limitations into an art all its own. When classic games get ‘hi-resed’, you lose all of that.”

[...]

“It’s true that you can often switch back to the original graphics,” he says, “but that is also true of colorizing black and white movies.

“You can always watch the original, but that doesn’t make colorizing it any less of an artistic sin. Saying you can switch back to the original art feels like a cop-out.”

Harsh! But Ron has a point. And as we've seen, the "original version" you can switch back to often isn't the perfect recreation it purports to be. After all, the only "classic" version of Monkey Island 2 that anyone can buy has vertical scrolling effects removed and some dialog altered. My grandkids will grow up without the "white slavers" line, so I hope you're proud of yourself, Craig Derrick!